FF21: I Never Knew Daylight Could Be So Violent
by shannyfish
Summary: Oliver and Diggle deal with Felicity being hospitalized and the looming threat. For SmoaknArrow's Olicity Flash Fiction Prompt #21: Three Reasons. Sequel to FF#18: In Your Bright Blue Eyes FINAL Prompt!


_To the crowd I was crying out and  
>In your place there were a thousand other faces<em>

_I was disappearing in plain sight_

_Heaven help me, I need to make it right_

_You want a revelation _

_You want to get "right"_

_But it's a conversation_

_I just can't have tonight _

_You want a revelation_

_Some kind of resolution _

_You want a revelation_

_~ "No Light, No Light" by Florence & the Machine_

. . .

"Oliver!"

He could hear his name, but he just couldn't bring himself from looking away from the door the doctor was supposed to come through. Oliver didn't know how long it was supposed to take for Felicity to be stabilized, but right now…all he could think was that it was taking too long. He couldn't get the image of Felicity on the floor, unresponsive out of his head.

"Oliver!"

Three minutes.

"Oliver!"

He knew that.

"Come on, Oliver! Talk to me!"

Felicity could have brain damage if she was deprived of oxygen for three minutes or more. The operator had said that it had been two minutes. Two minutes. Felicity had been dead for two minutes. He knew that he should feel some peace in knowing that she had started to breathe on her own and that she was breathing when they'd wheeled her into the hospital, but he didn't…

He was terrified.

Diggle's hands were on his shoulders as he moved into his line of sight. He effectively blocked Oliver's line of sight with the door. "The doctor is supposed to come through that door," Oliver finally said. Diggle seemed to understand and looked over his shoulder for a moment before moving out of the way.

"What happened?"

Oliver suddenly wondered WHO had called Diggle. He hadn't. "How—"

"The operator said that Felicity's HUSBAND requested that I be contacted and told to meet down here," Diggle explained and obviously seemed confused. "She said it was Felicity's peanut allergy?"

"It was Joshua—"

"I thought YOU were with her?"

Oliver sucked in breath. He already blamed himself for it all. Just the same, he recounted the events for Diggle slowly. "We ordered Thai food. I got into the shower. I got out and I found Felicity face down on the floor. She wasn't breathing." He shook his head. "John, I wasn't in the shower for THAT long, I should have heard—"

"You can't blame yourself—"

"It was Joshua."

"Are you SURE?"

"Who else COULD it be?"

"The Thai food?"

Oliver got to his feet and started to pace. He couldn't keep still. All he could think was that he needed to kill Joshua Randall. It could be like the early days when everyone called him the Hood. Oliver wished that it was something easy. That Joshua Randall was in his book of names, that he could just cross him off the list… "Why hasn't the doctor come out yet?"

"What HAPPENED, Oliver?" Diggle asked. He was looking right at him and Oliver knew that he needed to know the other details.

"I called 9-1-1 and I started CPR. The operator told me someone had already called it in, but wouldn't tell me WHO." He was angry and he wanted Diggle to understand that it was Joshua Randall. There was no other reasoning for someone else to have called it in before him. "The operator said it was a peanut allergy reaction that was called in. I got Felicity's eli pen, but it didn't seem to help, so I continued CPR until the medics arrived. They had to shock her…" He stopped, his hands up over his head, as he tried to breathe through what he was going to say next. "I thought—I thought she was dead, John… I didn't think they were going to bring her back…"

"Oliver—"

"She was dead for TWO minutes." Oliver turned in a circled and tried to calm down, but he just wanted to kill the man who had done this to their Felicity…to HIS Felicity. "TWO."

"Mr. Queen?"

The doctor's voice caught his attention immediately and thoughts of killing Joshua Randall were forgotten…for the moment. Oliver turned his attention to him and Diggle was at his side a moment later as they walked towards the older doctor. "Is she okay? Can we see her?" Oliver rattled off quickly. In his head and heart, he knew that she was okay. After all, she was breathing when they'd brought her in.

"She's stable," the doctor confirmed. "She's sleeping right now. Do either of you know the last time she had an anaphylactic episode?"

Oliver realized that he didn't know, he looked to Diggle and hoped that maybe he would. "No," Diggle spoke up. "The three of us have worked together for over two years...every day...all day long...and it's never been an issue before."

The doctor nodded. "She's likely been very careful." He was quiet for a moment. "The EMTs said that an epi pen was given before they got there, she started to have trouble breathing and we had to give her additional epinephrine in order to allow her to breathe with ease. I was just hoping to find if this was a normal reaction for her."

"The only family I know of is her mother, she lives in Las Vegas," Oliver spilled out before really thinking about it. "I don't think they're close. It would have been several years since she's been there."

"I'll have a nurse work on seeing if we can get a hold of her older medical records," the doctor told him. "You wouldn't happen to have Ms. Smoak's mother's number handy?"

"I don't think we have it," Oliver said slowly.

The doctor pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "The people she has listed as contacts are Oliver Queen and John Diggle."

"So us," Diggle said with a sigh. "We can go back to her apartment and see if we can get it."

"Can we see her first?" Oliver asked.

Nodding, the doctor motioned for them to follow him. "I'm cautioning you, she's asleep and she needs the rest. I want to keep her overnight at the very least...just to observe… I would prefer not releasing her until I can look over her records to make sure we'll be able to better combat a future episode."

. . .

"She's going to be alright."

"I know."

"Your stance and that face doesn't tell me that you KNOW that," Diggle countered as they entered Felicity's apartment.

The first thing they saw was a huge bouquet of flowers. Oliver could feel the heat of anger and rage fill him as he marched towards it. He wanted to take it and throw it up against the wall. He wanted to put on his green leather, pull up that hood, and put an arrow in the man that could have killed Felicity.

"There's a card."

If it wasn't for Diggle, Oliver probably would have just lost it right there. He pulled the card from the flowers and pulled it from the envelope. The words were worse than the flowers being there...the words were worse than what Randall had already done to Felicity...he'd gone way too far…

"What does it say?"

"If I can't have you, then he won't either," Oliver barely got out. He felt sick suddenly. He loved Felicity, but things were too complicated… He wanted her to be happy, obviously that wasn't with Joshua Randall, though, but...he'd just been there to keep her safe.

"I'll call Lance-"

"No!"

"Oliver!"

"He deserves to die!"

Diggle grabbed him and spun him around, his hands holding Oliver in place. Sometimes he forgot how strong Diggle was. "Think about Felicity. Think about how she would feel if she found out that you KILLED him because of her… Do you remember how Felicity felt after you killed the Count?"

"He was going to kill her-"

"You're right," Diggle interrupted. "He was going to inject a lethal dose of Vertigo into her system, it would have killed her if you hadn't killed him first…" He paused. "But this… Joshua Randall… He's not the Count. He's not Slade. He's just a man who needs to be put behind bars… We have PROOF. We have a tangible and provable threat, Oliver. PLEASE. This time, just let Lance take care of it."

"It's Felicity," Oliver whispered.

"You're right, it IS Felicity," Diggle replied. "OUR Felicity. Do you think I WANT to let him live? The more I thought about it at the hospital, the more it all made sense that it was Randall… You know what stopped me?"

"What?"

"Felicity."

"He's going to keep coming-"

"So, we talk to Lance...and if the police won't do anything, then the Arrow can pay him a visit… But just a WARNING, Oliver."

"It's Lance," Oliver found himself saying before really thinking much more about it. "He's not going to let Randall hurt Felicity again." It was almost like a fog had been lifted. Like he could think clearly. Quentin Lance LIKED Felicity and Oliver didn't see him taking this threat likely, especially with her in the hospital. "Call him," Oliver finally said.

"You going to look for her mother's info?"

Oliver nodded and headed to where he remembered seeing what had looked like a little address book. He remembered thinking that it was odd because Felicity was VERY digital and he had thought it was weird that she wouldn't keep all her numbers in her cell phone, which he would look for as well. He pulled it out of the nightstand drawer and stared at it for a moment. It was small and obviously worn. Opening it, Oliver started to thumb through it. It was Felicity's writing and given all of the numbers and addresses in it, it looked like it was something that she'd kept since before college. All of the information was mainly for the Las Vegas area.

"He's going to meet us at the hospital."

He turned around and held up the book. "Donna Smoak. I'm thinking that's her mother. No other people with the same last name."

"Oliver, did you throw out the food?"

Oliver frowned. "No. Why?"

"It's gone. I think when Randall broke in here with the flowers, he took it all and dumped it."

Sighing, he shook his head. "Lance-"

"He'll believe you." Diggle paused for a moment. "He HAS to. It's Felicity."

. . .

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Felicity-"

"No, I want to make my statement so I can go home and not have to worry about it tomorrow," Felicity told him.

Oliver thought it was a bad idea, but Felicity had insisted. She'd just been released from the hospital and instead of having Lance take her statement at home or doing it tomorrow, she'd insisted on getting it done. None of them were very happy about it, but it was what Felicity wanted.

He and Diggle had to wait while Lance took Felicity alone and sat down to talk with her. Oliver hated it. Oliver didn't think that Lance would push Felicity to any point where she'd feel really uncomfortable, but he still worried about her. He couldn't help it.

"There she is," Diggle spoke up.

More time than they'd both thought was necessary had passed and so when they saw her, they both stood. Diggle needed to get back to Lyla and Oliver just wanted to take Felicity home. He wasn't sure if she'd feel safe there, but it was better than the Foundry. They just wouldn't be ordering any more Thai...possibly ever.

Lance wrapped an arm around Felicity and held her in place. Oliver frowned and realized almost instantly why. The police had Joshua Randall in custody, a very beaten up looking Randall. For a moment, Oliver was jealous that he hadn't been the one to teach Randall a lesson. He felt Diggle grab him, Oliver hadn't even realized that he'd balled up his fists and stepped towards him. The minute that Randall saw Felicity and him, he started to fight the officer and started to scream expletives.

"Move him faster," Lance practically complained to the officer.

A moment later, a second and third officer moved to help move Randall away. It felt like a weight was lifted off of him knowing that Randall was in police custody. At the very least, if Randall was released, Oliver was certain that Lance would give them a heads-up and then the Arrow could give him a visit. Oliver wouldn't allow Randall anywhere near Felicity again. He wouldn't let anyone else hurt her.

"You remember when you were shot and Felicity brought you to the Foundry?" Diggle asked quietly.

Oliver's eyes didn't leave Felicity as Lance kept her in place. "Yes," Oliver said quietly and wasn't sure where Diggle was going with this.

"You said we could protect her-"

"And we CAN."

"I never expected that HE would be the kind of scum we'd be protecting her from."

Oddly, Oliver would almost rather be dealing with someone like the Count or Slade. They were more predictable. They would be using Felicity against HIM. Randall had tried to take Felicity out of that world because of jealousy...Oliver and Felicity weren't even-

"Sorry about that," Lance said as he and Felicity finally walked over to them. "He was supposed to have been moved earlier."

"You okay?" Oliver asked her.

Felicity just nodded, but he could tell that she really wasn't. Likely emotionally drained and possibly physically from being in the hospital.

"How about lunch?" Diggle offered as he put his arm around Felicity. He started to walk her out of the station.

Oliver waited a moment. He could catch up. "Thank you," he told Lance.

"I don't know if we'll be able to prosecute."

"Just...give us a head's up if he's released."

"Will do." Lance paused for a moment. "And take care of her."

He stared at Lance for a long moment. The two of them had such a long past and he was almost surprised by Lance's words. "I will," Oliver whispered.

. . .

"Thanks for the ice cream," Felicity told him.

"I even double checked the ingredients list...and then I got you the one that had ingredients that I could read."

Felicity seemed to beam suddenly and then laughed. "I don't think nuts normally go into mint chocolate chip ice cream…"

"I wasn't going to risk it," Oliver told her as he sat down on the couch next to him, a spoon in hand before he dipped it into the container. An around rested on the back of the couch as he smiled at her.

"You know...you could just stay here...it has to be better than living in the Foundry."

He hadn't expected that. Oliver didn't want to crowd her though. The three of them spent so much time together, sometimes it was nice to have space. He didn't want to overstep...not with her. "Felicity, I-"

"Let me give you my mini argument that I thought of while I was sitting loving the fact that you got me my favorite ice cream," Felicity said and held up her finger. "Just give me a minute to rattle off three reasons."

Oliver smiled and felt like he had to at least hear her out. "Okay."

"One. You need to be in the sunlight more," she said as she gestured to her windows. "Even if it's through the windows… I hear vitamin D is good for you."

He just smiled as he continued to listen.

"Two. I have a couch...and a bed… Plenty of room for sleeping that isn't the concrete floor of the Foundry."

He noticed that she stopped and bit her bottom lip for a moment and then seemed like she was waiting to see if he'd say anything to that. He didn't.

"Three. I'm hardly here anyways… So, it makes sense to share the space…" She smiled at him. "See? Makes complete sense."

Oliver laughed. "So it seems."

"But I would have to insist that you actually sleep...more than two hours," she told him as she used her spoon to emphasize her point.

"I...I think I can do that," he told her as his smile got larger.

"So...movie?"

"You pick."

. . .

The End.


End file.
